Organizational Adaptability and Preparedness

MAKING RESILIENCE A REALITY℠

Resiliency is the ability to adapt and respond to sudden or gradual change. A sustainable organization must be capable of turning the unforeseen into the expected through the identification and evaluation of the risks facing the enterprise. Maintaining a competitive advantage requires developing dynamic resources and protections, as well as reporting and governance frameworks. All must be embedded into the culture, operations and structure of a business to drive and improve the value of the company.

Drinker Biddle’s multi-disciplinary Resilient Organizations℠ Team works with companies to assess current risks and processes, establish policies and procedures, and increase organizational resiliency. Our inter-practice team addresses risks at all levels of a company from privacy to energy to communications to labor through an integrated process. We are here to help make resilience a reality for you by integrating and strengthening:

COMMUNICATIONS

We help clients assess their communications services by reviewing service providers, service level agreements and contracts. Based on a company’s communications usage and needs, we work with them to identify opportunities for efficient and emerging technology. We help clients address needs for backups and redundancies. We counsel clients on regulatory issues, including enhanced and next generation 911 requirements and standards.

DATA PRIVACY

We assist clients to minimize exposure and reduce risks through compliance counseling and policy development as well as service and product contracting. We help our clients build U.S. and global privacy programs that include detailed policies and procedures, employee communications, and best practices relating to security, protected health information and electronic data. We develop data subject privacy notices and consents, both national and global, to enable the transfer of data between affiliates in different jurisdictions.

ENERGY AND UTILITIES

We help clients conduct energy and utilities resource analysis by assessing current emergency preparedness conditions, as well as processes from procurement to operation. Regarding energy, not only do we help companies keep the power on when the grid is down, we help them evaluate their energy use and opportunities, including efficiencies, self-generation and microgrids. Better perspective and intelligence on your energy and utility operating environment will provide resilience, cost-savings and environmental performance.

INSURANCE

We help clients review all lines of insurance and analyze coverage needs. Whether the client is an insurance supplier or insured, we help them evaluate potential risks and obtain the necessary protections. We regularly work with our clients to design the appropriate insurance coverage, including environmental insurance and emerging cyber insurance products.

INFORMATION GOVERNANCE

We assist clients to skillfully govern their information. We work with companies to plan and implement policies and compliance programs related to data integrity, including employee training and handbooks. Our team creates strategies for data mitigation and auto-classification in a legally defensible manner. We also work with Board of Directors to ensure confidential data of the board is maintained separate from the overall company.

ENVIRONMENTAL

We help clients properly plan for environmental emergency needs by evaluating both the potential issues that may arise from your internal operations and the adverse impacts that may arise from higher risk sites in the vicinity of your operations. We develop and implement programs to not only comply with the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, but also for both internal and external emergencies so that protocols are in place, effective training is completed and regular simulations are coordinated with regional departments and agencies to allow our clients to refine and proof the program.

LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT

We assist clients to avoid employee-related security breaches and potential litigation. We regularly conduct workplace audits of personnel policies, wage and hour compliance, and hiring, promotion, security and compensation practices. We help assess current collective bargaining and employment agreements and create restrictive covenant agreements with post-separation non-competition, customer and employee non-solicitation, and confidentiality restrictions. We developed in-house training programs for our clients to assist with human resource preparedness.